TherionSaysWhat, Assassin Reject wrote:
Read the sticky.
Don't try to play your rogue like a pally. Two very different classes (I have one each at 80) which play very differently. Learn to love single-target burns while the mob is stunned. It's a bit slower early but once you get Cheap Shot things start to pick up.
Stealth, stun, build up some combo points and finish is the most basic pattern for rogues.
Multiple pulls are a bad idea until later on in the leveling process and should be avoided.
The point is that you burn the mobs down so quickly that you should see similar if not more XP per hour than leveling a pally pre-40 (when larger pulls become possible with Holy Shield). I found that pre 3.0 nerf my pally and rogue could get around the same XP/hour while in the 50-70 grind, but in entirely different ways. Ya just need to change your mind-set when on the two toons.
Good luck.
Best advice right there ... I had EXACTLY the same issues when starting a rogue after getting my warrior to 70. I just could not get my head wrapped around not being able to take hits, and lots of them, to the extent that I started and deleted no less than 5 rogues before level 15 (only one made it past 10). Then I came to this board, and received advice similar to Therion's above. I believe it was Demea who answered my call, and I've not looked back.
Make sure you know what your abilities are, the key ones are the abilities which keep your target locked down, so stuns, stuns, stuns.
Learn to use stealth, a key factor in playing a rogue is your ability to pick your fights - I completed quests on my rogue with the absolute minimum of killing (distract is your friend when you get it), while it took about 20-30 kills on my warrior to accomplish the same goal. True, this means that your kill xp goes down, but you can complete some quests quicker, so it balances out. If there is more than one mob to take down, sap the one - all part of picking your fights and being a sneak.
Evasion - don't be afraid to use it. It may have a cooldown, but it has that cooldown for a reason - it's a very powerful tool - so use it.
Get yourself a hard hitting sword, daggers are good and all, but in the early levels, you'll not be making the maximum use of the daggers - slow swords are your friend.
Don't be afraid to pull a mob with your ranged weapon. It's another part of the "Pick your fight" mentality - sometimes, picking your fight can't be done by stealthing in - so be a sneaky SoB in reverse and grab the mob's attention (and hurt him a bit) from a distance, assuming you have the aforementioned hard hitting sword, and you've followed the advice in the stickies wrt where to put your first points and what spec to start leveling in, pulling and nuking down (a single mob) face to face is child's play.
In short, adjust your mindset to being the sneaky SoB you're playing, and you should be fine.
Just remember one thing if you forget everything else - Rogues are single target destroyers, at later levels that changes to a degree if you're combat and you get Blade flurry and Adrenaline rush, but even then - that's not all the time. Concentrating on a single target, and locking them down is what a rogue is about.